Shake Me in My Clinging...

Entry #24
10 April 2007
Work: Leslie Marmon Silko, The Man to Send Rain Clouds

I haven’t given this story a whole lot of thought yet. We read it in class (or rather, Dr. McCarthy read it to us), and I followed along with great interest. My heritage is Apache, and though this is a Pueblo tale, it’s the same part of the country. I imagine there are similarities (I don’t know. I have books, but I have no knowledge handed down to me.).

The blending of old and new, with respect to each (even on the part of the priest, in the end) is beautiful, peaceful and open-minded. Inspiring, even. I think that one of the things illustrated in the story is how cooperation and tolerance of different beliefs can be handled. Most of what I know of religion, I’ve learned from J. Campbell (I’m sure that’s become clear), and when he talks about us “needing a new mythology,” I envision something of this sort: taking the best of each religion and blending it into something that embraces everyone. The utmost respect is shown for the priest, and though at first, he is rigid in the laws of his faith, he comes around, taught, perhaps by a people that may have been viewed as savage by one of a “higher order.” It shows that the teacher and the pupils are only different by a degree and that the status can shift at any time.

Also, the positive way in which a death is handled is very different than the clinging, mournful way that many other people (me included) handle the letting go of another human being. Incredible faith must be required to think and feel in this way. I’ve learned a lesson in it, though I thought I already knew it. I’m a firm believer in the positive things that can come out of the seemingly negative. The final shift is to stop thinking of things as seemingly negative.

My husband has a way of relating how he can (if he chooses) consider every day a great day. He uses this analogy:

“I am at my mother’s side as she’s taking her last breath. Now, I can say that this is a horrible day for me, that I’ve just lost someone I love dearly, and how can I consider the day to be a good one with this knowledge? However, on that very day, perhaps on a different floor of the hospital, a new mother is holding her newborn child. She is consumed by her joy. In light of this, I cannot pronounce this a bad day because I’ve suffered loss. The new mother has just received an incredible gift. For her, it is a great day, so if I stop taking things so personally, thinking of things happening to me, and instead, see them as just happening, then every day must be a great day.”

I think it’s a beautiful analogy. In my clumsy way of attempting to put words in his mouth, another might not see it that way, but I’m trying, I am really trying, to embrace it as such.

The Man to Send Rain Clouds is a beautiful example of this philosophy.

Till later…